


Refraction

by CourierNinetyTwo



Category: She-Ra and the Princesses of Power
Genre: F/F, Finale spoilers, Post-Finale
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-17
Updated: 2018-11-17
Packaged: 2019-08-25 02:42:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 597
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16652764
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CourierNinetyTwo/pseuds/CourierNinetyTwo
Summary: She tells Catra about Mara after a huge fight, because it will always be easier for Adora to talk to the girl she loves than to point a sword in her direction.





	Refraction

She tells Catra about Mara after a huge fight, because it will always be easier for Adora to talk to the girl she loves than to point a sword in her direction.   
  
They’re both exhausted, sweat-spent and bloodied, and somewhere in the battlefield around them, the Horde and the Rebellion are fighting like the main event hasn’t paused at all.    
  
She-Ra’s form holds, but the gem in the center of the blade has lost its sheen after endless hours of conflict. Catra’s armor—she has armor now, as Hordak’s second—is missing spikes, clawed gauntlets cast aside for the real claws underneath. They still cut deep, but it’s a sting Adora is used to.   
  
Fallen next to Catra on Eternia’s broken earth, she speaks, because it hurts less. Somehow, it hurts less.   
  
“Mara couldn’t bear being She-Ra anymore, so she broke the line. She shattered the connection for a thousand years.” That glimpse of her forebear in the temple spurred more questions than it answered, and Adora still has no idea what to think. She wonders what it would feel like to hold the universe in her hands, then move it. "But there were so many others like her before that."   
  
Contemplation cuts a tense line through Catra’s brow. “So somehow you were born, found that sword again, and it all started over?”   
  
That sums it up. Adora has always appreciated how Catra makes complicated things sound so simple. “Yeah. And I don’t know the why or the how.”   
  
Catra is quiet after that, long enough that Adora wonders if exhaustion has stolen her from consciousness. Except then she speaks again, soft and distant. “Do you think if there’s been that many versions of you, there were also versions of me?”   
  
_ Are we destined to do this, again and again? _ That’s what Catra’s asking, and Adora doesn’t know, so she offers the only comforting answer she has.   
  
“I think Mara might have given up because she didn’t have someone like you.” She dares to look at Catra, staring deep into aquamarine and gold. “It made a difference for me.”   
  
“Whatever. I bet my other selves were amazing.” Catra huffs, but doesn’t break their shared gaze. “I’ll be better, though.”   
  
More than anything, Adora wants her to be better. Except that’s something She-Ra can’t fix; it’s not the kind of healing a blade can do.   
  
No one else is here, so when they both lean forward, it’s a promise and a secret kept. Adora holds a sound tight in her throat as she and Catra kiss, hands at their sides so an ambush is out of the question.    
  
This is the moment they always come back to, no matter how awful things get. Whoever wins or loses, there's a memorial to what they had once.    
  
Once or again, Adora supposes. Maybe that’s why it keeps happening.   
  
She pulls away first this time. A cry from Glimmer and Bow in the distance heralds victory, but there will still be injuries to take care of and resources to count for the next inevitable fight.    
  
“I’m going to go and check on my people,” Adora says, and pretends the warmth of Catra’s mouth doesn’t linger on her lips. “You should do the same.”   
  
“I don’t take orders from you,” Catra snaps, but the indignation fades fast. “Just get out of here.”   
  
She does, because she knows Catra will sound a retreat the moment she makes it back to the Horde. They’ve done as much damage to each other as they can for one day.   
  
If only it prepared her for tomorrow.


End file.
